Selective touch scan area and reporting techniques

ABSTRACT

Techniques are disclosed for selective area scanning, touch scanning, and/or reporting of touch screen contacts in electronic touch sensitive devices. The selective area scanning can be used to only scan a specific section of a touch screen area, the selective touch scanning can be used to scan only for specific touches or input sources on a touch screen, and the selective reporting can be used to selectively report only desired contacts to a device processor and reject all other contacts. Multiple selective scan areas can be provisioned, with each discrete area customizable with respect to location, size, accepted touch types and/or reporting criteria. In some cases the user can configure some or all of these selective screen features.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.13/749,410, filed on Jan. 24, 2013 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,836,154), whichis herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure relates to electronic display devices, and moreparticularly, to user input scanning techniques for touch sensitivedevices.

BACKGROUND

Electronic display devices such as tablets, eReaders, mobile phones,smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other such touchscreen electronic display devices are commonly used for displayingconsumable content. The content may be, for example, an e-book, anonline article or blog, images, documents, an inking or drawingapplication, a movie or video, just to name a few types. Such displaydevices are also useful for displaying a user interface that allows auser to interact with files other content on the device. The userinterface may include, for example, one or more touch screen controlsand/or one or more displayed labels that correspond to nearby hardwarebuttons. The user may interact with the touch sensitive device usingfingers, a stylus, or other implement. The touch screen display may bebacklit or not, and may be implemented for instance with an LCD screenor an electrophoretic display. Such devices may also include other touchsensitive surfaces, such as a track pad (e.g., capacitive or resistivetouch sensor) or touch sensitive housing (e.g., acoustic sensor).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1a-b illustrate an example electronic touch sensitive deviceconfigured with a selective touch screen function, in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 1c-d illustrate example configuration screen shots of the userinterface of the electronic touch sensitive device shown in FIGS. 1a-b ,configured in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an electronic touch sensitivedevice, configured in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 3a-c illustrate example selective touch screen scan regions in anelectronic touch sensitive device, in accordance with variousembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example configurable touch scan and reporting areaof an electronic touch sensitive device, in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5a illustrates a method for selective touch scanning and reportingin an electronic touch sensitive device, in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5b illustrates another method for selective touch scanning andreporting in an electronic touch sensitive device, in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Techniques are disclosed for selective area scanning, touch scanning,and/or reporting of touch screen contacts in electronic touch sensitivedevices. The selective area scanning can be used to only scan a specificsection of a touch screen area, effectively creating dead zones on thetouch screen where no user contacts can be detected. The selective touchscanning can also be used to scan only for specific touches or inputsources on a touch screen, such as an active stylus input or a fingercontact, while rejecting all other types of screen contact. Theselective reporting of touch screen contacts can be used to selectivelyreport only desired contacts to a device processor and reject all othercontacts. Rejecting unwanted user contacts at the touch screencontroller level, before the controller reports to the processor,reduces the burden on the device processor. A selective scan area mayalso be combined with customized input scanning and reporting features,such that certain areas only scan for or report certain user inputs.Such features can be used to reduce power consumption and may increasedevice performance by reducing the burden on the device processor. Insome cases the user can configure some or all of these selective screenfeatures, while in other cases the selective screen features arehard-coded or set by default.

General Overview

As previously explained, electronic display devices such as tablets,eReaders, and smart phones are commonly used for displaying userinterfaces and consumable content. In some instances the user mightdesire to interact with the device in only using a stylus, or only afinger. In other instances the user might wish for the touch sensitivesurface to only register screen taps and not sweeping gestures, or viceversa. In still other instances, the user might wish for a touch screento only register contacts in a certain area of the screen, only registersweeping gestures in certain areas of the screen, or not register orscan for any inputs in a certain area of the screen. While someelectronic devices provide hand-rejection techniques, or reject certainstray contacts on a touch sensitive surface, such techniques involvescanning the entire touch sensitive surface, registering the undesiredinput, analyzing the input at the processor to determine that it is anundesired input, and rejecting the input. Such techniques createundesired burden on the processor and waste valuable resources inscanning for, analyzing, and rejecting undesired inputs. There does notappear to be an effective and power-saving selective touch scanning andreporting function for electronic touch sensitive devices.

Thus, and in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention,techniques are provided for selectively scanning and reporting inputs inan electronic touch sensitive device. The techniques disclosed may beused to customize the touch screen of a device to only scan specificareas, to selectively scan certain areas, or to selectively report usercontacts to the processor. In some embodiments, the user may identify adead zone, or a no-scan zone, where the touch screen controller does notscan for any user inputs. If no inputs are desired in that area, deviceperformance may increase by not unnecessarily scanning such an area. Inother embodiments, the user may identify a selective scan area whereonly certain inputs are scanned for, such as inputs from an activestylus. In such a case, the user does not care about other inputs anddevice performance may increase by only scanning for a desired inputsource. In still other embodiments, the user may wish to scan for all orsome input sources but may only be interested in specific gestures, suchas a sweeping gesture. In such a case, the touch screen controller mayreport sweeping gestures to the processor and reject all other gestures(such as a tap gesture) before reporting to the device processor. Instill other embodiments, unwanted input sources may also be identifiedand discarded at the controller level if the screen is scanned for allinput sources. In such an example embodiment, the screen may scan forall input sources but report only finger contacts while discardingactive stylus inputs. Many other configurations and variations of theseselective scan and/or reporting features will be apparent in light ofthis disclosure.

Note that any touch sensitive device (e.g., track pad, touch screen, orother touch sensitive surface, whether capacitive, resistive, acousticor other input detecting technology) may be used to selectively detectthe user input and the claimed invention is not intended to be limitedto any particular type of touch sensitive technology, unless expresslystated.

Architecture

FIGS. 1a-b illustrate an example electronic touch sensitive device witha selective touch scanning and reporting function, configured inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The device couldbe, for example, a tablet such as the NOOK® tablet by Barnes & Noble. Ina more general sense, the device may be any electronic device having atouch sensitive user interface and capability for displaying content toa user, such as a mobile phone or mobile computing device such as aneReader or laptop, a desktop computing system, a television, a smartdisplay screen, or any other device having a touch screen display or anon-touch display screen that can be used in conjunction with a touchsensitive surface. As will be appreciated, the claimed invention is notintended to be limited to any particular kind or type of electronicdevice.

The touch screen display (or touch sensitive screen) can be any displaythat is configured with user input detecting technologies, whethercapacitive, resistive, acoustic, active-stylus, and/or other inputdetecting technology. The screen display can be layered above inputsensors, such as a capacitive sensor grid (e.g., for passive touch-basedinput, such as with a finger or passive stylus in the case of aso-called in-plane switching (IPS) panel), or an electro-magneticresonance (EMR) sensor grid (e.g., for active stylus-based input). Insome embodiments, the touch screen display can be configured with apurely capacitive sensor, while in other embodiments the touch screendisplay may be configured to provide a hybrid mode that allows for bothcapacitive input and active stylus input. In still other embodiments,the touch screen display is configured with only an active stylussensor. Numerous touch screen display configurations can be implementedusing any number of known or proprietary screen based input detectingtechnology. In any such embodiments, a touch screen controller may beconfigured to selectively scan the touch screen display and/orselectively report contacts detected directly on or otherwisesufficiently proximate to (e.g., within a few centimeters) the touchscreen display. Thus, in some such embodiments, the touch screencontroller can be configured to interpret inputs from only a capacitiveinput, only an active stylus input, or both.

As previously explained, the user input may be provided, for example, bya passive implement (e.g., finger or capacitive stylus) or an activestylus, depending on the configuration of the touch screen display. Inone example embodiment, an active stylus input can be provided by anactual physical contact on a touch sensitive surface. However, in otherembodiments, the active stylus input may involve the stylus hoveringsome distance above the touch screen display surface (e.g., one to a fewcentimeters above the surface, or even farther, depending on the sensingtechnology deployed in the touch screen display), but nonethelesstriggering a response at the device just as if direct contact wereprovided. As will be appreciated in light of this disclosure, an activestylus as used herein may be implemented with any number of activestylus technologies, such as DuoSense® pen by N-trig® (e.g., wherein theactive stylus utilizes a touch sensor grid of a touch screen display) orEMR-based pens by Wacom technology, or any other commercially availableor proprietary active stylus technology. Further recall that the activestylus sensor in the computing device may be distinct from an alsoprovisioned touch sensor grid in the computing device. Having the touchsensor grid separate from the active stylus sensor grid allows thedevice to, for example, only scan for an active stylus input, a touchcontact, or to scan specific areas for specific input sources, inaccordance with some embodiments. In one such embodiment, the activestylus sensor grid includes a network of antenna coils that create amagnetic field which powers a resonant circuit within the active stylus.In such an example, the active stylus may be powered by energy from theantenna coils in the device and the stylus may return the magneticsignal back to the device, thus communicating the stylus' location,angle of inclination, speed of movement, etc. Such an embodiment alsoeliminates the need for a battery on the stylus.

As can be seen with this example configuration, the device comprises ahousing that includes a number of hardware features such as a powerbutton, control features, and a press-button (sometimes called a homebutton herein). A touch screen based user interface is also provided,which in this example embodiment includes a quick navigation menu havingsix main categories to choose from (Home, Library, Shop, Search, Light,and Settings) and a status bar that includes a number of icons (anight-light icon, a wireless network icon, and a book icon), a batteryindicator, and a clock. Other embodiments may have fewer or additionalsuch user interface (UI) touch screen features, or different UI touchscreen features altogether, depending on the target application of thedevice. Any such general UI controls and features can be implementedusing any suitable conventional or custom technology, as will beappreciated.

The hardware control features provided on the device housing in thisexample embodiment are configured as elongated press-bars and can beused, for example, to page forward (using the top press-bar) or to pagebackward (using the bottom press-bar), such as might be useful in aneReader application. The power button can be used to turn the device onand off, and may be used in conjunction with a touch-based UI controlfeature that allows the user to confirm a given power transition actionrequest (e.g., such as a slide bar or tap point graphic to turn poweroff). Numerous variations will be apparent, and the claimed invention isnot intended to be limited to any particular set of hardware buttons orfeatures, or device form factor.

In this example configuration, the home button is a physicalpress-button that can be used as follows: when the device is awake andin use, tapping the button will display the quick navigation menu, whichis a toolbar that provides quick access to various features of thedevice. The home button may also be configured to cease an activefunction that is currently executing on the device, or close aconfiguration sub-menu that is currently open. The button may furthercontrol other functionality if, for example, the user presses and holdsthe home button. For instance, an example such push-and-hold functioncould engage a power conservation routine where the device is put tosleep or an otherwise lower power consumption mode. So, a user couldgrab the device by the button, press and keep holding as the device wasstowed into a bag or purse. Thus, one physical gesture may safely putthe device to sleep. In such an example embodiment, the home button maybe associated with and control different and unrelated actions: 1) showthe quick navigation menu; 2) exit a configuration sub-menu; and 3) putthe device to sleep. As can be further seen, the status bar may alsoinclude a book icon (upper left corner). In some cases, tapping the bookicon may provide bibliographic information on the content or provide themain menu or table of contents for the book, movie, playlist, or othercontent.

In one example embodiment, a selective touch screen configurationsub-menu, such as the one shown in FIG. 1d , may be accessed by tappingor otherwise selecting the Settings option in the quick navigation menu,which causes the device to display the general sub-menu shown in FIG. 1c. From this general sub-menu, the user can select any one of a number ofoptions, including one designated Screen in this specific example case.Selecting this sub-menu item (with an appropriately placed screen tap)may cause the configuration sub-menu of FIG. 1d to be displayed, inaccordance with an embodiment. In other example embodiments, selectingthe Screen option may present the user with a number of additionalsub-options, one of which may include a so-called selective touch screenfunction option, which may then be selected by the user so as to causethe selective touch screen configuration sub-menu of FIG. 1d to bedisplayed. Any number of such menu schemes and nested hierarchies can beused, as will be appreciated in light of this disclosure. In otherembodiments, the selective touch screen function is hard-coded such thatno configuration sub-menus are needed or otherwise provided (e.g., anapplication specific selective touch screen as described herein, with nouser configuration).

As will be appreciated, the various UI control features and sub-menusdisplayed to the user are implemented as UI touch screen controls inthis example embodiment. Such UI touch screen controls can be programmedor otherwise configured using any number of conventional or customtechnologies. In general, the touch screen translates the user touch ina given location into an electrical signal which is then received andprocessed by the underlying operating system (OS) and circuitry(processor, etc). The user touch may be performed with a finger, astylus, or any other suitable implement, unless otherwise specified.Additional example details of the underlying OS and circuitry inaccordance with some embodiments will be discussed in turn withreference to FIG. 2.

As previously explained, and with further reference to FIGS. 1c and 1d ,once the Settings sub-menu is displayed (FIG. 1c ), the user can thenselect the Screen option. In response to such a selection, the selectivescan/reporting configuration sub-menu shown in FIG. 1d can be providedto the user. The user can configure a number of features with respect tothe selective area scanning and reporting feature, in this particularexample. In this example case, the configuration sub-menu includes a UIcheck box that when checked, or otherwise selected by the user,effectively enables the selective touch screen mode (shown in theenabled state); unchecking the box disables the mode. Other embodimentsmay have the selective touch screen mode always enabled, while in otherembodiments the mode may be enabled or disengaged by a physical switchor button, or by a uniquely identifiable gesture or screen contact, forexample.

In this example embodiment the user can select, with a UI check box, a‘Custom Input’ that is to be scanned for or reported by the touchsensitive surface. As can be further seen with reference to FIG. 1d ,examples of possible custom inputs that may be scanned for and reportedinclude ‘Only Finger’ inputs, ‘Only Stylus’ inputs, ‘Only Tap’ inputs,or ‘Only Gesture’ inputs. In some embodiments, the touch screencontroller can scan only a determined section of the touch screen, thuscreating a dead zone in non-scanned sections where no user input isscanned for. In other embodiments, the controller may selectively scanfor specific inputs, such as a finger contact or an active styluscontact. In still other embodiments, the touch screen controller mayanalyze user contact and only report certain inputs to the processor,thus rejecting unwanted user input without using additional processorresources. In such an example, the user may only be interested insweeping gestures in a certain area, and the controller may beprogrammed to only report sweeping gestures to the processor whilerejecting tap gestures. This provides much more efficiency compared toanalyzing and rejecting unwanted user inputs at the processor orapplication level. Multiple combinations and variation of theseembodiments will be apparent in light of this disclosure.

In some embodiments, the user may specify a number of applications orscenarios in which the selective touch screen mode can be enabled. Sucha configuration feature may be helpful, for instance, in a tablet orlaptop or other multifunction computing device that can executedifferent applications (as opposed to a device that is more or lessdedicated to a particular application). In this example case, theavailable applications are provided along with a corresponding check boxas shown in FIG. 1d . Note the diverse nature of the examples, includingan ‘eBook’ application, a ‘Word Processor’ application, a ‘Drawing’application, a ‘Video Player’ application, and the ‘Lock Mode’ which arejust a few examples. Any number of applications or device functions maybenefit from a selective touch screen mode as provided herein, whetheruser-configurable or not, and the claimed invention is not intended tobe limited to any particular application or set of applications. In thisparticular example shown in FIG. 1d , the selective touch screen mode isenabled for drawing and video player applications, as well as the lockmode.

As previously explained, the user may specify a number of custom inputsthat are to be scanned for or selectively reported to the processor.Such a configuration feature may be helpful, for example, if the user isonly interested in inputs from an active stylus, or a specific stylus.In such an example, the touch screen controller can selectively scanonly for inputs from the active stylus and ignore any other contactsmade on the touch screen. Such a configuration feature may also behelpful if the user wishes to scan an area for stylus inputs, forexample, but is only interested in sweeping gestures. In such anexample, the touch screen controller can scan for stylus inputs but onlyreport sweeping gestures to the processor, rejecting all other styluscontacts at the controller level without consuming any processorresources. In this particular example case, the custom inputs of ‘OnlyStylus’ and ‘Only Gesture’ inputs have been selected. In such anexample, the screen controller may only scan for active stylus inputs,and the controller will only report stylus gestures to the processorwhile rejecting stylus taps before reporting to the processor. Inanother such example, the controller may scan the selective touch screenarea for all inputs but reject non-stylus inputs at the controller levelrather than perform a selective scan.

In addition, a back button arrow UI control feature may be provisionedon the touch screen, so that the user can go back to the Settings menuafter the selective touch screen function has been configured, if sodesired. While a number of user-configurable features are provided insome embodiments, other embodiments may have any combination of similarfeatures wherein the features are set as a given default or areotherwise hard-coded, such that no user configuration is necessary.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an electronic touch screen deviceconfigured in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Ascan be seen, this example device includes a processor, memory (e.g., RAMand/or ROM for processor workspace and storage), additionalstorage/memory (e.g., for content), a communications module, a touchscreen with a touch screen controller, and an audio module. Acommunications bus and interconnect is also provided to allowinter-device communication. Other typical componentry and functionalitynot reflected in the block diagram will be apparent (e.g., battery,co-processor, etc). In any such cases, the touch screen surface isgenerally capable of translating a user's physical contact with thesurface into an electronic signal that can be manipulated or otherwiseused to trigger a specific user interface action, such as those providedherein. As stated previously, the principles provided herein equallyapply to any touch screen device.

In this example embodiment, the memory includes a number of modulesstored therein that can be accessed and executed by the processor(and/or a co-processor). The modules include an operating system (OS), auser interface (UI), and a power conservation routine (Power). Thevarious modules can be implemented, for example, in any suitableprogramming language (e.g., C, C++, objective C, JavaScript, custom orproprietary instruction sets, etc), and encoded on a machine readablemedium, that when executed by the processor (and/or co-processors),carries out the functionality of the device. Other embodiments can beimplemented, for instance, with gate-level logic or anapplication-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or chip set or other suchpurpose built logic, or a microcontroller having input/output capability(e.g., inputs for receiving user inputs and outputs for directing othercomponents) and a number of embedded routines for carrying out thedevice functionality. In short, the functional modules can beimplemented in hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof.

The processor can be any suitable processor (e.g., 800 MHz TexasInstruments OMAP3621 applications processor), and may include one ormore co-processors or controllers to assist in device control. In thisexample case, the processor receives input from the user, includinginput from or otherwise derived from the power button and the homebutton. The processor can also have a direct connection to a battery sothat it can perform base level tasks even during sleep or low powermodes. The memory (e.g., for processor workspace and executable filestorage) can be any suitable type of memory and size (e.g., 256 or 512Mbytes SDRAM), and in other embodiments may be implemented withnon-volatile memory or a combination of non-volatile and volatile memorytechnologies. The storage (e.g., for storing consumable content and userfiles) can also be implemented with any suitable memory and size (e.g.,2 GBytes of flash memory). The display can be implemented, for example,with a 6-inch E-ink Pearl 800×600 pixel screen with Neonode® zForce®touch screen, or any other suitable display and touch screen interfacetechnology. The communications module can be, for instance, any suitable802.11 b/g/n WLAN chip or chip set which allows for connection to alocal network so that content can be downloaded to the device from aremote location (e.g., content provider, etc., depending on theapplication of the display device). In some specific exampleembodiments, the device housing that contains all the variouscomponentry measures about 6.5″ high by about 5″ wide by about 0.5″thick, and weighs about 6.9 ounces. Any number of suitable form factorscan be used, depending on the target application (e.g., laptop, desktop,mobile phone, etc). The device may be smaller, for example, forsmartphone and tablet applications and larger for smart computer monitorapplications.

The operating system (OS) module can be implemented with any suitableOS, but in some example embodiments is implemented with Google AndroidOS or Linux OS or Microsoft OS or Apple OS. As will be appreciated inlight of this disclosure, the techniques provided herein can beimplemented on any such platforms. The power management (Power) modulecan be configured as typically done, such as to automatically transitionthe device to a low power consumption or sleep mode after a period ofnon-use. A wake-up from that sleep mode can be achieved, for example, bya physical button press and/or a touch screen swipe or other action. Theuser interface (UI) module can be, for example, based on touch screentechnology and the various example screen shots shown in FIGS. 1a-d,3a-c , and 4, in conjunction with the selective touch screenmethodologies demonstrated in FIGS. 5a-b , which will be discussed inturn. The audio module can be configured, for example, to speak orotherwise aurally present a selected eBook table of contents or othertextual content, if preferred by the user. Numerous commerciallyavailable text-to-speech modules can be used, such as Verbosetext-to-speech software by NCH Software. In some example cases, ifadditional space is desired, for example, to store digital books orother content and media, storage can be expanded via a microSD card orother suitable memory expansion technology (e.g., 32 GBytes, or higher).

The touch screen controller can be any suitable controller (e.g. theCYP658756 chip by Cypress), with sufficient hardware control toimplement the selective scan area features disclosed herein, andsufficient software to implement the selective scanning and reportingfeatures. The touch screen controller may be local to the touch screenin some embodiments and may selectively scan, analyze, and/orselectively report touch screen inputs to the processor via thecommunications bus. The touch screen controller works with and reportsto the processor, and although some inputs may be analyzed and rejectedat the controller level, other functions may be performed at theprocessor if needed or otherwise desired. In other embodiments, thetouch screen controller may also be in communication with an applicationcurrently running on a device, such that the controller may scan acustom area, or selectively report custom inputs based on whichapplication the user is running at that moment. As will be appreciatedin light of this disclosure, analyzing and selectively discarding andreporting inputs at the controller level can save power and processorresources, thus providing a more efficient touch sensitive computingsystem.

Selective Touch Screen Examples

FIG. 3a illustrates an example selective touch screen mode of anelectronic touch sensitive device, in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention. As can be seen, a physical frame or supportstructure is provided about the screen of the device. As can be furtherseen in this example, the screen area contains a selective touch screen(or inking) area, shown as the shaded area of the touch screen, and asecondary touch screen area on the upper and left borders of the touchscreen. In one particular application of the present invention, the userhas opened an inking application and only wishes to register stylusinputs/gestures in the inking area of the screen. In one such exampleconfiguration, the inking area can be a stylus-selective touch screenarea (shown as the shaded section of the touch screen), while thesecondary touch screen area (shown as the non-shaded section of thetouch screen) can be scanned normally and all user inputs are registeredand analyzed. This may be useful if the user wishes to only mark with astylus within the drawing page of an inking application. In such anexample, any stray hand contacts or tap inputs will not beregistered/reported or otherwise affect the inking area of the screen.

In other embodiments, the secondary touch screen area of the screen mayalso selectively scan or report user inputs. In such an example, theupper and left borders of the touch screen may only scan or only reportfinger taps, while the inking area only scans or reports stylusgestures. In one embodiment, the selective touch screen area isimplemented by only scanning for stylus inputs within the selectivetouch screen area. In another embodiment, the selective screen area isimplemented by having the touch screen controller discard all unwanteduser inputs and only reporting certain inputs to the processor. Suchembodiments conserve power and processor resources by selectivescanning, or by discarding unwanted contacts at the touch screencontroller level.

In some embodiments, either the selective touch screen area or thesecondary touch screen area may be configured to scan for or report anynumber of user inputs. For example, the areas may be configured to onlyscan for finger inputs or stylus inputs, or they may be configured toonly report taps, swipes, stylus inputs, multi-point contacts, etc. tothe processor. In still other embodiments, either of the selective touchscreen area or the secondary touch screen area may be configured as adead zone that accepts no user input. Any number of combinations ofscanning and reporting features may be implemented and will be apparentin light of this disclosure.

FIG. 3b illustrates another example selective touch screen mode of anelectronic touch sensitive device, in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention. This particular example may be suitable for alock mode selective scanning technique, wherein only a portion of thescreen is scanned for user input while the rest of the screen is a deadzone. Such an embodiment may conserve power and processor resources byonly scanning the area designed to detect an unlock UI gesture. As seenin this example, the touch screen area includes a scan area on thebottom of the screen, shown as the shaded area of the touch screen. Theremainder of the touch screen area is a no-scan area. The scan andno-scan areas may be configured by the user to custom sizes and inputs,as discussed earlier, or they may be hard coded and not configurable.The context of this example case is for a lock mode feature at thebottom of a touch screen area (such as a slide bar touch screen UIfeature), but numerous other context-specific embodiments will beappreciated in light of this disclosure. For instance, in anotherexample embodiment, the scan and no-scan areas are configured for usewith a text messaging application, wherein only the keyboard and textentry areas are scanned and all other areas are no-scan areas.

FIG. 3c illustrates another example selective touch screen mode of anelectronic touch sensitive device, in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention. As can be seen, this particular example shows alarge no-scan area in the center of the touch screen, shown as theshaded area of the touch screen. This large no-scan area is bordered onthe top and the bottom by areas of the touch screen that are scannednormally for user inputs, in this example embodiment. Stray taps on avideo screen may cause an unwanted pause or rewind in a movie, and thisparticular selective touch screen configuration may be useful, forexample, for a video player application, where inputs are only expectedat the control bar (e.g., pause, play, stop, rewind, etc) and/or volumecontrol area of the video player. In addition to creating a moreconvenient viewing experience, the selective scanning can increasedevice performance and battery life.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example configurable touch scan and reporting areaof an electronic touch sensitive device, in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. As can be seen, this particularexample shows a shaded selective touch screen area substantially in thecenter of the touch screen. On the upper and left borders of the touchscreen, a custom scan area grid or ruler is provided in this example,along with a number of scan boundary markers/handles that can beadjusted to customize the size of the scan area. In this particularexample, the selective touch screen area may be adjusted to a customsize by relocating the various scan boundary markers. In such anexample, the selective touch screen area may be associated with one ormore applications, with a selective scan function, a selective inputreporting function, a no-scan function, or any combination of thepreviously discussed selective touch screen features. In someembodiments, multiple such configurable selective touch screen areas maybe identified on a single touch screen surface, each having customizedscanning and reporting features. As previously explained, the describedtechniques may be user-configurable or hard-coded. To this end, notethat the number of configurable scan areas may be user-configurable.Thus, if the user configures the device to have two configurable scanareas, for instance, then two distinct scan areas would be provisioned,each having a set of adjustable boundary markers so as to allow for fullcustomization with respect to size, location, scanning, and reporting.

Methodologies

FIGS. 5a-b illustrates a method for selective touch sensitive scanningand reporting in an electronic touch screen device, in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention. This example methodology may beimplemented, for instance, by the touch screen controller of the touchsensitive electronic device shown in FIG. 2. To this end, the touchscreen controller module can be implemented in software, hardware,firmware, or any combination thereof, as will be appreciated in light ofthis disclosure.

In general, any touch sensitive device may be used to detect usercontact. As soon as the user begins to drag or otherwise move a fingeror stylus tip, the touch screen controller code (and/or hardware) canassume a drag gesture has been engaged and track the path of the usercontact with respect to any fixed point within the touch surface untilthe user stops engaging the touch screen surface. The release point canalso be captured by the controller as it may be used to commit theaction started when the stylus pressed on the touch sensitive surface.In a similar fashion, if the user releases the contact without movingthe finger or stylus tip, a tap or press or press-and-hold command maybe assumed depending on the amount of time the user was continuallypressing on the touch sensitive surface. These main detections can beused in various ways to implement UI functionality.

In the example shown in FIG. 5a , the method includes determining 501whether the selective touch screen mode is enabled. If not, then thescreen surface may be scanned 502 normally. If the selective touchscreen mode is enabled, the method may continue with determining 503whether a custom touch screen area is enabled. A custom touch screenarea may be any area other than the entire touch screen area and such acustom touch screen area may be configurable by the user, default touchscreen area settings may be associated with specific applications, orthey may be hard-coded. Also, multiple custom touch screen areas may bepresent on the touch screen of a single device. If a custom touch screenarea is selected, the method may continue with determining 504 whether acustom input scan is enabled. Similarly with the custom touch screenarea, the custom input scan feature may be configurable by the user, itmay have a default setting associated with specific applications, or itmay be hard coded into the device. If a custom input scan is enabled,then the method may continue with scanning 508 the selected area of thetouch screen only for a selected input. One example of such a scan wouldbe to scan only a section of the screen for an active stylus input. Ifno custom input scan is selected, then the method may continue withdetermining 505 whether custom input reporting is enabled. Custom inputreporting is distinct from custom input scanning because an input isscanned for and rejected by the screen controller, rather than not beingscanned for at all. If custom input reporting is enabled, the method maycontinue with scanning 507 the selected area of the touch screen andselectively reporting to the processor the desired inputs, whilediscarding all other inputs detected. If no custom input reporting isenabled, the method may continue with scanning 506 the selected touchscreen area for all user inputs.

If, however, a custom touch screen area is not selected at 503, themethod may continue with determining 509 whether a custom input scan isselected for the entire touch screen. If a custom input scan isselected, the method may continue with scanning 511 the entire screenarea for the selected user input. If no custom input scan is selected,the method may continue with determining 510 whether custom inputreporting is enabled. If custom input reporting is enabled, the methodmay continue with scanning 512 the entire screen area and selectivelyreporting to the processor only the desired inputs, while discarding allother inputs detected. If no custom input reporting is enabled, themethod may continue with scanning 502 the surface normally. The variousfeatures and functions descried above may be configured in aconfiguration sub-menu, like the one shown in FIG. 1d , or they may behard coded as previously explained.

FIG. 5b illustrates another method for selective touch scanning andreporting in an electronic touch sensitive device, in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. In this example case, the methodalso includes determining 501 whether the selective touch screen mode isenabled. If not, then the screen surface may be scanned 502 normally. Ifthe selective touch screen mode is enabled, the method may continue withdetermining 503 whether a custom touch screen area is enabled. A customtouch screen area may be any area other than the entire touch screenarea and such a custom touch screen area may be configurable by theuser, default touch screen area settings may be associated with specificapplications, or they may be hard-coded. Also, multiple custom touchscreen areas may be present on the touch screen of a single device. If acustom touch screen area is selected, the method may continue withscanning 520 the one or more selected/active screen areas. The methodmay then continue with reporting 521 selected user inputs for eachactive screen area. The inputs that are reported for each active screenarea may be configurable, or may be hard coded in the device. If nocustom touch screen area is selected, the method may continue withscanning 522 the entire screen area. The method may then continue withreporting 523 selected user inputs; and as discussed above, the inputsthat are reported may be configurable or hard coded in the device.

The foregoing description of the embodiments of the invention has beenpresented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise formdisclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light ofthis disclosure. It is intended that the scope of the invention belimited not by this detailed description, but rather by the claimsappended hereto.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic device, comprising: a touch screendisplay for displaying content to a user and having an input detectingarea configured to receive user inputs; and a touch screen controllerhaving a selective touch screen mode configured to selectively scan thetouch screen display by scanning for user input from a preselectedportion of the input detecting area that is not all of the inputdetecting area of the touch screen display; and a user interfaceconfigured to present a set of adjustable boundary markers, that onceengaged, allows for user-customization of the preselected portion of theinput detecting area with respect to size and location of thepreselected portion.
 2. The device of claim 1, wherein the userinterface further includes a custom scan area ruler to indicate positionof the set of adjustable boundary markers on the input detecting area,which in turn indicates the position of the preselected portion.
 3. Thedevice of claim 1, wherein the touch screen display includes multiplepreselected portions of the input detecting area, each of the multiplepreselected portions being associated with a set of adjustable boundarymarkers.
 4. The device of claim 1, wherein the touch screen displayincludes a no-scan area, the no-scan area being a portion of the inputdetecting area that is outside of the preselected portion and wherescanning for user input is not performed.
 5. The device of claim 1,wherein the preselected portion of the input detecting area isconfigured for use with an application, such that a text entry areaand/or a user interface control feature of the application is presentedwithin the preselected portion.
 6. The device of claim 1, wherein inputsreceived outside the preselected portion are ignored.
 7. The device ofclaim 1, wherein only a subset of inputs detectable via the touch screendisplay and that are received within the preselected portion of thedisplay are reported, such that one or more of the inputs detectable viathe touch screen display that are received within the preselectedportion of the display are not reported.
 8. The device of claim 1,wherein the preselected portion is a first preselected portion, and theinput detecting area further includes a second preselected portion. 9.The device of claim 8, wherein the second preselected portion of theinput detecting area is associated with one or more of a selective scanfunction, a selective reporting function, and/or a no-scan function. 10.The device of claim 8, wherein the touch screen controller is furtherconfigured to selectively scan the second preselected portion for aninput gesture or input source that is not scanned for in the firstpreselected portion.
 11. A system, comprising: a processor; a touchscreen display for displaying content to a user and having an inputdetecting area, the touch screen display allowing a plurality of userinput gesture types from a plurality of user input sources, and theinput detecting area including a preselected portion; a user interfaceconfigured to present a set of adjustable boundary markers, such thatmovement of at least one of the adjustable boundary markers allows foruser-customization of the preselected portion of the input detectingarea with respect to size and location of the preselected portion; and atouch screen controller having a selective touch screen mode configuredto at least one of selectively scan or report a subset of inputsdetectable via the touch screen display and that are received within thepreselected portion of the display, such that one or more of the inputsdetectable via the touch screen display that are received within thepreselected portion of the display are not scanned for or reported tothe processor.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the subset of inputsthat are selectively scanned for or reported include an unlock screengesture or an unlock user interface gesture.
 13. The system of claim 11,wherein inputs received outside the preselected portion are ignored. 14.The system of claim 11, wherein the preselected portion is a firstpreselected portion, and the input detecting area further includes asecond preselected portion, wherein the second preselected portion isassociated with one or more of a selective scan function, a selectivereporting function, and/or a no-scan function.
 15. The system of claim11, wherein the subset of inputs selectively scanned for or reported tothe processor is user-configurable with respect to one or more of inputsource and/or gesture type.
 16. A non-transitory computer readablemedium encoded with instructions that when executed by one or moreprocessors, cause a process to be carried out in a system having a touchscreen display, the touch screen display having an input detecting areaand configured for detecting user input, the process comprising:presenting a user interface configured to present a set of adjustableboundary markers, that once engaged, allows for user-customization of apreselected portion of the input detecting area with respect to size andlocation of the preselected portion, wherein the preselected portion isnot all of the input detecting area of the touch screen display; andselectively scanning the touch screen display by scanning for input fromthe preselected portion of the input detecting area, such that there isa portion of the input detecting area where scanning for input is notperformed.
 17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein thepreselected portion is a first preselected portion, and the inputdetecting area further includes a second preselected portion, andwherein selectively scanning the touch screen display further includesscanning for input from the second preselected portion different thaninput scanned for in the first preselected portion.
 18. The computerreadable medium of claim 16, wherein prior to selectively scanning, theprocess further comprises: receiving boundary input based onmanipulation of the adjustable boundary markers, the boundary inputspecifying the size and the location of the preselected portion; andestablishing the preselected portion of the input detecting area at thespecified location.
 19. The computer readable medium of claim 16,wherein only a subset of inputs detectable via the touch screen displayand that are received within the preselected portion of the display arereported, such that one or more of the inputs detectable via the touchscreen display that are received within the preselected portion of thedisplay are not reported.
 20. The computer readable medium of claim 16,wherein inputs received outside the preselected portion are ignored.